Shine Shine Bobo and the Chairman

Last week was a week that we will remember of one of our top 10 events in our lives. It started about 6 weeks ago when the Nigerian Breweries Marketing Team asked me to be the Coach of the Shine Shine Bobo Star Team in a football match against the Heineken Chairman Team in Uyo. In my team would be playing the best player ever in Africa, Jay Jay Okocha and 4 other players of the US1994 team when Nigeria made it to the quarter finals of the World Championships Football. In the Chairman Heineken Team was the Heineken UEFA Champions League Tour Ambassador Carles Puyol (Barcelona). I am still extremely honoured that I was asked for this. As you know all good Football coaches are coming from the Netherlands and as to speak with Louis van Gaal; "I would give them a cookie of their own dough"………..(Denglish). The coach of the Heineken Team was Emmanuel Oriakhi, our Marketing Director.

We flew to Uyo, which is in Akwa Ibom State in the South West of Nigeria, on Monday afternoon. Since we had all these famous players with us we had reserved the whole business class of the plane. When we went through the security check I realised that Steve (our head of security) was holding a big black bag in his hand and the bag had the vague form of the Champions League Trophy.  When we were all in the plane the crew did not allow Steve to keep this bag with him in Economy class and wanted that the bag went in the hold of the plane. Since we did not want to lose sight of the bag (Yes the Champions League Trophy was really in it!!), we decided to give the Trophy a business class seat. I volunteered to look after it. This was a weird experience having a bag with this magnificent trophy sitting in the chair next to you.

After arrival we collected all people from the plane and went into our convoy of Toyota Landcruisers (12) with police/guard in the front as well as in the back of the convoy. With sirens we drove across the city to our hotel. We stayed in the Ibom Hotel & Golf Resort, which is the most beautiful golf course in Nigeria. On Monday night I had a private dinner with Carles, Jay Jay, Xavier (a good friend of Carles), Jeremy (his Manager, a very nice guy), the Assistant Manager, Jordi (our Managing Director) and Emmanuel. For completeness the Assistant Manager had also an Assistant-Assistant Manager.

On Tuesday the day started with a press conference by Nigerian Breweries where the Heineken UEFA Champions League Tour would be officially announced and the Trophy carried in by Puyol. Since I expected to be in the audience, I did not bring a suit for this visit. While we were almost leaving I got a phone call from our Corporate Affairs Director, Sade, if I was wearing a suit. I told her I did not bring it but I had a shirt with me. She asked me to put it on and hurry since we were late for the press conference. When I came outside the hotel, a whole line of tallest Nigerians were waiting for me to try on their Jackets if any of them fitted. They were all too small but we agreed that I would take one with me. It turned out that I was sitting on the stage at the press conference with microphone, geared up for any questions, together with Puyol, Jay Jay, Jordi (MD), Emmanuel (MAD) and Sade (CAD) but just in my shirt. 

After the Press Conference which was a great experience, we went to the governor of Akwa Ibom State at the parliament of the State. In an impressive Parliament we had nice speeches of Jordi and the governor and afterwards a photoshoot with the Champions League Trophy. From there we went to the hotel to prepare for the Unmissable Match between “Shine Shine Bobo” and the “Chairman”.

We arrived at the Stadium at 16.45 and the match would start at 17pm. There were approx. 18.000 Spectators in the stadium! The Godswill Akpabio International Stadium fit 30.000 spectators and it is a stadium where every city in Europe would be proud of.  The match was broadcasted live on television via Supersport. Supersport is the (South) African version of SkySports. It was all very official with 4 officials, entering the stadium as teams, line up before the match, team pictures, coaches that could leave their designated area, etc, etc. There were 2 drones flying above the field filming and camera crews on the side. It was incredible. Shine Shine Bobo fought as Super Eagles and there were unmissable moments in the match. Every time JayJay had the ball the audience went bananas! There was African music coming from one side of the audience. Unfortunately we lost at the end with 5-2 from the Heineken (Chairman) team with Captain Puyol. After the match camera crews were inside the stadium and were doing live interviews with players and coaches and I was interviewed by 2 crews as well. We had flown in from the Netherlands Dave Lankau. He is an artist who customises shoes by painting them. He had made special pair of shoes for both Puyol and JayJay and these shoes were given to them after the match.

We arrived at the Stadium at 16.45 and the match would start at 17pm. There were approx. 18.000 Spectators in the stadium! The Godswill Akpabio International Stadium fit 30.000 spectators and it is a stadium where every city in Europe would be proud of.  The match was broadcasted live on television via Supersport. Supersport is the (South) African version of SkySports. It was all very official with 4 officials, entering the stadium as teams, line up before the match, team pictures, coaches that could leave their designated area, etc, etc. There were 2 drones flying above the field filming and camera crews on the side. It was incredible. Shine Shine Bobo fought as Super Eagles and there were unmissable moments in the match. Every time JayJay had the ball the audience went bananas! There was African music coming from one side of the audience. Unfortunately we lost at the end with 5-2 from the Heineken (Chairman) team with Captain Puyol. After the match camera crews were inside the stadium and were doing live interviews with players and coaches and I was interviewed by 2 crews as well. We had flown in from the Netherlands Dave Lankau. He is an artist who customises shoes by painting them. He had made special pair of shoes for both Puyol and JayJay and these shoes were given to them after the match.

In the evening we had a public viewing in Uyo Conference Centre with Champions League Trophy and the Nigerian Stars as well as Puyol and we watched Barcelona-Manchester United. At a certain moment it was clear that Barcelona would win and qualify for the semi-finals so it was agreed to change to the fantastic match Juventus-Ajax, Ajax played really well and beat Juventus in Turin. Ajax also qualified for the semi-finals. One thing I have to add that in the whole entourage of the Champions League Trophy, there was a great guy who was wearing white gloves every time the cup was shown to the audience and if the cup was touched he started cleaning it with his gloves, he sat next to Dave during the match with the Cup on his lap.

Another item that was nice that the cup had somewhere between 6 and 8 ‘bodyguards’ protecting the cup the whole time. They were all massive, with sunglasses and suits and big golden security badges on their jackets. As part of the event Puyol decided to make a selfie with part of the audience. This selfie made it into the “thank you-video” for Uyo and when looking at it I discovered a blond photo bomb named Vivienne J

The next morning our tour through Akwa Ibom State, Unmissable Match as well as our visit to the Governor was in all newspapers on front cover. We had chartered a flight to bring us all back to Lagos to meet the Governor of Lagos. Unfortunately the company from which we chartered the flight (Air Peace) did not show up on time. We were supposed to leave Uyo at 8 am but there was no plane. We arrived much too late in Lagos because of this. In the evening we had another event in the Eko Hotel related to the Heineken UEFA Champions League Tour. Here we enjoyed with Heineken the Skyline of Lagos and watched the game Manchester City – Tottenham Hotspurs. This was really an insane match with 3 goals in the first 10 minutes and an offside goal in the dying seconds of the match. While we were watching we were waiting for Herman, my oldest (longest) friend from Rotterdam, who would arrive that evening. During the beginning of the match we were called that Herman could not be found at the airport by our protocol officer. I tried to call Herman, but his roaming did not work and I couldn't reach him. In the end he managed to borrow a phone from somebody and called the protocol officer, who then picked him up. It was Herman’s first time in Africa and Lagos International Airport is an experience if you arrive there. They put Herman in an armoured car and with mo-pol (mobile police) with 4 guards (with guns) driving behind him, they brought him to us in the Eko Sky Bar. We had not told him about the event so you can imagine his surprise from being lost at the airport in Lagos and 40 minutes later standing on a picture with Puyol and the Champions League Trophy.

On Thursday night the Champions Tour came to an end with a big Heineken Celebration in the Eko Convention Centre. By now we were used to the program. There would be the famous Champions League Hymn, Puyol and the Trophy, Jay Jay Okocha and the bodyguards would come on stage and the whole crowd would go crazy. After this part Puyol and his manager, Xavier and Jay Jay would move to the VIP area with great view on the stage. It was a night with typical very loud music by Nigerian Superstars like Darey, Tiwa Savage, Two-Cents. There were a lot of Nigerian Music celebrities, Nollywood stars, Vlog/Blog Influencers. We were sitting with a group of friends directly next to Puyol and Okocha and since we had already been travelling and doing things together for the last 3 days, you get to know them and we could talk to them. They are both very kind, interested and modest people. It was great pleasure for Viv and myself to be part of this experience.

An unmissable week!